Easy Eclairs

Effort: Easy/Medium

30 mins (Prep), 40 mins (Bake)

Ingredients

Pâte à Choux Pastry

  • 1 stick butter (8 tablespoons)
  • 200 mL (0.85 cup) water
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 cup flour
  • Pinch of salt

Custard

  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 100 mL (~0.4 cup) white sugar
  • 2 tablespoons pastry flour
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 3 tablespoons butter

Preparation

Pâte à Choux Pastry

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.
  2. Boil water in pot over stove. Add stick of butter and simmer until butter is melted. Let boil for 3 minutes.
  3. Take water/butter mix off the stove. Add flour and pinch of salt and quickly mix until smooth.
  4. Put this dough back on medium stove heat and mix for 3-5 minutes.
  5. Take the dough off the stove and put it, while hot, in the stand mixer. Use a paddle attachment and set the mixer to low speed, adding in six eggs one at a time.
  6. Use medium ice cream scoop or equivalent to place pastry on baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Scoops should be roughly one inch apart.
  7. Bake for 40-50 minutes. Make sure to turn baking sheet around halfway (20 mins in) to bake eclairs evenly. Eclairs should be golden and baked through.

Custard

  1. Bring milk with vanilla to a boil over the stove.
  2. In a separate bowl ("bowl 1"), combine flour and sugar. Mix well with a fork or spoon.
  3. In a separate bowl ("bowl 2"), beat two eggs. This bowl should be medium/large size.
  4. Add the flour and sugar from bowl 1 into the egg bowl (bowl 2). Whisk together.
  5. Pour the hot milk into bowl 2, beating the milk into the egg/flour/sugar mix gradually with a mixer. Make sure the mix does not overflow.
  6. Pour the milk/egg/flour/sugar mix from bowl 2 back into a stovepot and mix until it boils and thickens. Mix constantly over low heat.
  7. Take custard off the heat, add in butter, and mix until the butter dissolves.

Putting it all together

  1. Slice eclairs midway (just enough to open them like a clam). Use a spoon to stuff in custard.
  2. (Optional) Use a sifter to coat eclair tops with powdered sugar.